The present invention relates to communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the allocation of transactions conducted using a variety of media (or protocols) between a source to a resource capable of processing the transaction request.
In order for organizations to be accessible to customers, for example to provide adequate sales and after-sales support, it is advantageous to the organization to allow a customer to communicate with a resource of the organization by any one of a number of media types or communication protocols that may be convenient for and accessible to a customer. For example, a particular customer may find it most convenient to communicate with the organization using a conventional telephone unit, whereas another custom may prefer to interact with the organization utilizing electronic mail (e-mail) or over the World Wide Web (WWW) utilizing a text chat capability. The allocation of resources to communication requests from customers received over a variety of media types may prove challenging to organizations. While traditional systems, such as Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs), may be able to handle and allocate communication requests received over one particular media type or using one particular communication protocol, such systems are typically not equipped to handle and allocate communication requests received via a further media type or communication protocol.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of routing a transaction message within a communications system. First and second transaction messages of transactions of respective first and second types are queued within a queuing mechanism. Each of the first and second transaction messages are allocated from the queuing mechanism to a resource.
According to a second aspect of present invention, there is provided a further method of routing transaction messages within a communications system. Transaction messages are queued within a plurality of queues of a queuing mechanism according to a transaction type of each transaction message, each queue of the plurality of queues be dedicated to queuing transaction messages of a respective transaction type. The transaction messages are allocated from the plurality of queues of the queuing mechanism to a resource according to the availability of the resource.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for routing a transaction message within a communications system. The routing apparatus includes a queue engine to queue transaction messages within a plurality of queues according to a transaction type of each transaction message, each queue of the plurality of queues be dedicated to queuing transaction messages of respective transaction type. A transaction message router identifies a queue within the plurality of queues within which each transaction message is queued.
According to a fourth aspect of present invention, there is provided a queue engine for queuing a plurality of transaction messages. The queue engine comprises a plurality of queues queuing transaction messages of different transaction types. Allocation logic allocates the transaction messages from the plurality of queues to a resource.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a machine-readable medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to queue transaction messages within a plurality of queues of a queuing mechanism according to a transaction type of each transaction message, each queue of the plurality of queues be dedicated to queuing transaction messages of a respective transaction type. The instructions further cause the machine to allocate the transaction messages from the plurality of queues of the queuing mechanism to a resource.
Other features of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.